줄루의례의 상징성과 사회적 의미

Abstract

Ritual is a religious practice of which Africans firmly rely on. Confronted with unexpected disease or unexplainable misfortune, Africans seek the solution from various type of rituals. Nevertheless, the study of ritual needs a specialised knowledge and methodology. It is because of the multiplicity of symbolic meanings which has a sociological background as well. This study on African ritual aims to achieve the symbolic meaning of ritual and sociological meaning. A case study is focused on ukuthwasa, A Zulu diviner's initiation ritual. As Victor Turner analyses on Ndembu rituals, African rituals seem to have a particular property: a transition of colour symbols. Black-Red-White are colour triad which symbolise (ritual) death-struggle-revival. Ukuthwasa has a similar colour triad which is represented through the ritual process. A initiate must begin with a ritual death which is represented by the drinking of black powder. During the ritual process, the initiate wears a red skirt. At the end of the ritual, the initiate is given a white skirt, which is the symbol of life and divining spirit. Ukuthwasa is also the phase of communita. Communita is charaterised by 'transition from one position to another', 'atime/aspace'. It is a anti-structure. The situation of a initiate in a diviner's initiation ritual is, in Turner's term, 'betwix and between', neither belonging to a spiritual world nor a this world. Ukuthwasa is the transitional phase between the initiate's old identity and new social identity.